📝 What is robots.txt and why does It Matter
robots.txt is a small text file placed on your website that tells search engines (like Google, Bing, and Yahoo) which pages they can or cannot crawl.
Think of it like a guidebook for search engines – it’s not a security tool but a set of polite instructions to help search bots focus on your most important pages.
🔑 Important Points Consumers Should Know
Location Matters
Robots.txt always lives in your site’s root folder.
Example: https://yourwebsite.com/robots.txt
Helps Search Engines Crawl Smarter
You can allow or block certain sections (e.g.,/search or /admin).
Helps avoid wasting crawl budget on unimportant pages.
Not a Security Tool
If you put Disallow: /private, Operators can still manually visit that page; robots.txt only tells search engines not to index it.
Common Use Cases
Block search results pages from being indexed (Disallow: /search).
Block duplicate pages (e.g., print-friendly Editions).
Point crawlers to your sitemap for faster discovery of new content.
Every Site Should Have One
Even a simple one with just a sitemap directive can help improve SEO.
✅ Example of a Good robots.txt
User-agent: *
Disallow: /search
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
⚠️ Elements to Avoid
Blocking your entire site (Disallow: /) unless you really want to hide everything.
Using it as a way to hide sensitive Information (use password protection instead).
If you forget to check it, you can use Google Search Console → Robots.txt Checker.
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